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| Steve Bateman: Mayor Number 3 to get arrested. |
Will Councilman John Burgess step up to the plate now? The Governor will remove Bateman from office.
The warrant alleged that Bateman overtly tried to help CHI despite never disclosing his side deal. That included his meeting with Mayor Gimenez, who told prosecutors he would have never met with Bateman had he known CHI was paying him.
The DeFede Video:
31 comments:
What took so long?
They love to wait for election cycles.
I am sorry that that things seems to go this way. I guess Bell gets her revenge.
Hooray!
Bateman was corrupt from the day he was elected. If he is smart and he is nowhere near a Rhodes scholar, he will detail for the state all of his shady dealings.
If he were to do that you can bet on a lot more arrests. Some involving more than one elected politician. Bateman in exchange may get a lighter sentence. There are more than a few worried people in and around Homestead right now.
GOOD MORNING HOMESTEAD! The Mayor has been arrested after barricading himself in his home. He had to be talked out by the Homestead police. He would not surrender to MDPD.
Press conference at 2:00
Yes, I am sure there are lots of nervous people walking around Homestead. Let's hope that law enforcement works him, good. Flipping on the corrupt would be sweet, sweet, sweet.
I'm hoping the Bells are the next to do the perp walk. With all the nepotism and back door deals like the DuBois nonsense and the CRA stuff, they are doing just fine on the Taxpayer dole along with their "friends" with DERM violations or those who need "grants" or "loans" from the County. I hope there is an alternative to Porter. Even with this crap, which I think is basically a paperwork error is so grossly over charged because of politics. Rivera is still walking around just fine and look at what he did. Look at Fresen with all the Charter school crap. There are so many worse then this, it's a waste of taxpayer funds but convenient timing by KFR while letting AB brokers off with Probation. That is worse to me then this. What a scum pond we live in down here. It's too bad our State Attorney is the worst Cherry Picker of them all. FBI? Please, arrest the real crooks taking our money.
Just another day in Dade County and another city mayor arrested. I'm sure we will read in the paper tomorrow how he has been framed and that he is going to prove that he is not guilty in court. Lets see how long it takes the Mayor to try and work a deal with the States Attorney's office where he will not serve any jail time. We should never offer any deals to political office holders who have been arrested and if they are found guilty they must serve jail time, not probation or house arrest.
Last anon, I would go back further. The AB brokers should be given jail time and the politicians they were seeking the ballots for should also face criminal charges. Let's start there first. Stealing elections is stealing democracy. It's a county/state wide problem.
In regard to this Homestead stuff, it smells like RTL Bell being a squeaky wheel. Let's wait for the bill to the taxpayers like the nonsense with Spence Jones. What's another million dollars of taxpayer funds to no where, then the wrongful prosecution. If this looks like political payback, it probably is. In the meantime, the Developers are lining up to start rock mining and/or annexations and/or build it they will come leading us to another financial collapse.
The real estate bubble has already started. Homestead has cash buyers all over and the houses are not staying on the market.
Almost everyone in Homestead who is a politician is either involved in real estate directly (or their close family/best friends are)and/or are executive directors of Non-profits who survive on CRA or Trust money (or church funds)
Bateman was the biggest cheerleader for new nuclear at Turkey Point. What do you bet he emerges as a FPL employee. Night watchman?
I hope Bateman qualifies and is at least on the ballot. I envision a Spence Jones redux! KFR seemed very proud of herself at an almost unintelligible press conference. I only wish it was some of the BCC and their lobbyists. This place is such a Banana Republic where the real crooks are still in office doing bad stuff on a daily basis with the blind eye of Rundle!
I am not defending Bateman. He did not come out right away because of his autistic son Austin. Bateman takes his son to school every day. Austin does not function well with strangers. Steve only looked after his son until his wife got home from work. Then he turned himself over to authorities.
The unanswered question is why him and not all the others? Was Bateman the sacrificial lamb to take the heat off of KRF and "let'em go Joe"
Ad why wasn't anyone from the company who was paying him off arrested. Wasn't what they doing illegal.
I hope Bateman sings like a canary.
The city press conference was a hoot. Packed to the rafters with the hangers on.
Some speakers expected Bateman to be arrested four years ago there was no shock and no surprise with today's events. Lots of name calling and lots of convenient forgetfulness because in 2009 five of them ran on one ticket.
Must be an Alzheimer's outbreak in Homestead now on the hopes of securing Jeff Porter as the future Mayor and Bateman's replacement. But Porter means Homestead will be getting more of the same. Beware of Jeff Porter he served as Bateman's treasurer in 2009 campaigned for him and has his own various multiple lapses in ethics. One more caveat, where there is Porter there is Shiver waiting in the closet for more city cash and property.
Now we have no way of knowing but I wonder if those political leaders ever went to the State Attorney about what they all now allege to know?
What will become of Bateman after 30 years in jail? He will be 88 years old unless he takes down a number of enablers and other council.
Some deal. Orange jumpsuits everyday and rats falling out of the ceiling because of greed. Sing Stevie sing the sooner the better.
I am absolutely shocked that the State Attorney's Office actually investigated and charged someone. You have got to be shitting me.
When Joe Centorino aka "Let'em Go Joe" was at the helm of the SAO public corruption section, absolutely nothing was accomplished and prosecutions were almost nonexistent. Now that sleepy Joe has jumped to head the county ethics commission for big bucks, perhaps the government corruption team at SAO can finally do their jobs.
What about Marc Sarnoff? When is his perp walk?
Not a big surprise in Homestead. Bateman lost control of himself assuming he had any to start with. He got lucky when Homestead voters turned out the odious Lynda Bell, essentially voting for anyone but Lynda.
Homestead voters need to think long and hard about the next person. Isn't there a normal person who can be Mayor of Homestead for crying out loud?
Steve Shiver.
Shoot me now
They should have begun arresting the crooks in Homestead 20 or so years ago. Homestead, once a
lovely semi-rural community where people knew and
cared about one another, providing 80% of winter vegetables to the US, has just been a deep pot of gold for greedy politicians to feather their own bed. For example, the absurd, tragic and secretive zoning
changes to turn rich agricultural land into hundreds
of attached housing units, ironically left empty, then vandalized during '08 recession. This land could
have been used to develop a one-of-a-kind residential area incorporating its unique sub-tropical agriculture. (The ONLY subtropical area in the continental USA.)
When I am in Homestead now I weep to see that it
is nothing more than a Third World ghetto. There
are still stalwarts holding on, trying to save what's
left. They are today's heroes.
Start checking the files-- you might want to take a
look at the shenanigans of some of the past politicians.
What was his Homestead salary that he felt he could see Mayor Gimenez on someone else's dime? Still in all, a real dirty politician wouldn't have created an invoice would he? How many non--invoiced transactions go on every day and what are the statue of limitations like? Why are we only going against sitting officials? We need to do some backtracking I think.
definitely agree that they should check past politicians. Guaranteed their records not so spotless. And look at currents too. Do you think Judy doesn't benefit from anything related to her position? And how about Jon Burgess? Does he report all the rich people who he works for as a boat captain? Surely some of those people bank rolling campaigns against Bateman... The whole thing wreaks of jealousy and spite. Who got hurt? No one! It was win-win for everyone. How much class does a city council have to speak so poorly of their leader? They stood by all this time and said nothing. They should be ashamed. They would not be standing there, would not have experienced the progress of the city if it was not for Bateman. This is a reflection on them as well. There was no secret that Bateman working for CHI. A pathetic attempt to get him to cower out of election. Nice try, Haters. Gloves off, dukes up, see ya in court and at the polls.
Maybe Bateman's defense will be be that he received his legal advice from Stephen Cody!
Who got hurt?
Seriously, you need to be placed under observation.
Only sea level rise can wash this level of corruption away.
The disgrace is that the people are so stupid to believe everything they hear... They must be so confused now. I sure am. Judy and Jon and George all are back stabbers. And they are guilty of the same kind of witch hunt Lynda Bell was accused of. Look where she landed! On the county commission!!! Thanks guys for promoting yet another. At least the intent of which they speak was not harmful like Bell's...
It seems Homestead Mayor needs Florida City Mayor as a Mentor. He would be Strong Mayor of Homestead for LIFE. :)
The citizens I have spoken to have all said to me that Mr. Bateman was trying to look out for the city he cares about. He tried to get a children behavior center up and running for our children who need this service. He tried to get an added infrastructure to improve my community. Yet, our state judicial system has time to go after a $1,000. When we have politicians shaking us down for $25,000 and more.
I have never in my life seen council members like Judy Waldman and Jon Burgess speak so bad against another colleague and fellow council person like I did on Wednesday on TV. Now for a city Manager George Gretsas to say what he did about our mayor was HORRIBLE! He does not know his place. I thought G. Gretsas was an honorable man. Was I Wrong.
Yes, I have drawn my own conclusion. Its political motivated. Who in their right mind would want to come to Homestead to live with this type of behavior.
I agree that people who know Bateman new is is a matter of time before he gets arrested.
I can not tell how happy I feed that he is down. But I must also say, Judy acted they way she always does, but she is forgetting now it is with the state attorney not homestead.
I do hope the state attorney will dig deep, because I assure you Judy will be in an orange suite ifs hey do.
As for the comments by the city manager... Can not believe what I read. Did he forget he is an administrator and he was there.
I'm sure the manager set the stage for more law suites against the city by city employees based on what he said.
I say George, quiets and go look for a job you good at . Because for sure you screwed this up.
Whatever side you are on, everyone needs to calm down now, let the dust settle, go back to normal day-to-day operations, and let the process take its course. He is no longer in office, and city officials must stabilize the situation and let the citizens know everything is OK, leadership is in control at the City, basic services are operational, and they are doing the best job they can to serve the needs of the community. This is an issue for the courts now, not city government.
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